


Stealing the Moon

by jusrecht



Category: Korean Actor RPF, Super Junior
Genre: Ancient China AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-08 20:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4317972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jusrecht/pseuds/jusrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Emperor's favourite concubine and a master strategist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. With Splendour Fading

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because [bl4ckm4lice](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bl4ckm4lice/pseuds/bl4ckm4lice) posted [this fanart](http://dancingblueberry.tumblr.com/post/120953058531/guixian-tang-dynasty-au-i-havent-even-started).
> 
> This chapter's title came from the song _Shattered_ by Trading Yesterday.

 

“You are absurdly beautiful.”

 

Kyuhyun smiled. It was a smile which would plunge his admirers into raptures. The noble courtiers would lay on his feet gold and jewels, wreathed in sweet promises; the poets would fall into a torrent of insensible verses, ardent confessions hidden in each word; the soldiers would swear victories in his name; the musicians would sing and play to his honour; the rest would fall to their knees and kiss the ground he walked upon.

 

This man was not a courtier or a poet or a soldier or a musician. This was an unfamiliar creature, entirely at ease in his own sphere, occupying his own zenith. He watched Kyuhyun with the intensity of dormant sea, a calm surface hiding an immeasurable depth.

 

Kyuhyun flicked a finger on the topmost string of his _guzheng_ and sighed. “I just played one of my favourite pieces, and yet you could only offer an opinion on an entirely unrelated subject.”

 

“Oh, you played beautifully, as always,” the other man said with a small, amused smile. “So beautifully did you describe the charm of the autumn moon that I could see only too vividly the image of you under a pale shower of moonlight. With your shoulders bared and your hair unbound and thus all the delights which would soon follow.”

 

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes but could not help a quick glance at every corner. They were alone in the music pavilion but shadows of the night hid much and one could not be too careful, especially if one was a favourite of the Emperor.

 

“You risk much with such talk,” he chided in a low voice.

 

“In the service of the Emperor, we already risk much,” Kijoon pointed out, rising to his feet. “Well. Shall I challenge my wits for a new strategy to slip unnoticed to your quarters later?”

 

Kyuhyun winced. “You find too much delight in this, considering what is at stake.”

 

A rare, warm laugh pricked the night’s hush. “What is this challenge but another battlefield? The principles are all the same, and so is the objective.” His gaze rested on Kyuhyun, softened either by night or the quality of the moment. “Fear not, my pearl. Your little secret is the cleverest man in the entire land.”

 

“And the vainest one,” Kyuhyun muttered, an accusation but for an undertone of fondness that lingered in his voice.

 

“Ah, but I am not vain,” Kijoon contradicted him swiftly. “Confident, perhaps, but not vain, for I know where my limits lie.”

 

“But do you know mine?”

 

“Yes.”

 

There was no hesitation in Kijoon’s answer. Kyuhyun nodded quietly, his stirring disquiet once more laid at rest. Kijoon might tease and make fun on his expense, but when it came to things that truly mattered, he would never put Kyuhyun or his family at risk.

 

“I think tonight will be inconvenient,” Kyuhyun said at last, forcing himself to meet the other man’s eyes.

 

A strange but gentle smile came to Kijoon’s lips. “Very well,” he nodded and turned around with a swish of silk.

 

Kyuhyun sat where he was for a long time, hands folded neatly atop each other, eyes never once looking away from Kijoon’s retreating back. Half-formed thoughts stole into his mind, filled with faces behind bamboo screens as he wondered which of the pretty-faced musicians would warm his lover’s bed tonight. The thought was a surprisingly bitter one, but he knew very well that he had no right to give it voice. He, who belonged to the Son of Heaven and thus no one else.

 

The moon had disappeared behind a siege of clouds when Kyuhyun finally took a deep breath and rose. It was late. He must return to his quarters and prepare himself for the Emperor’s visit.

 

 _**End**_  


 


	2. Dark Little Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, because [bl4ckm4lice](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bl4ckm4lice/pseuds/bl4ckm4lice) drew [such a beautiful fanart](http://dancingblueberry.tumblr.com/post/128031734666/the-pearl-of-my-heart-kijoon-x-kyuhyun-ancient) /weeps

Kyuhyun stirred from his light doze to an empty bed.

 

The room was as unfamiliar to him as another world, fading tendrils of sleep twisting strange colours and unusual shapes. He listened, for a moment, to the winged silence, the mellow song of cicadas, the susurrus of bamboo trees outside as the wind caressed their leaves. A nearby window was fastened shut despite the cool summer night—a demonstration of caution, or at least the pretence of such, against the risk of accommodating his presence there so late at night.

 

Slowly, Kyuhyun rose from the narrow bed, pulling his robe close around his nakedness. He was clearly alone in the room, and the realisation caused a small pang of hurt in his chest. They were braving innumerable risks to spend a few stolen hours together here, in the Lord Strategist’s sanctum—and yet it would seem that his lover did not even intend to keep him company throughout the tryst.

 

His bare feet made very little sound as he crossed the length of the room toward the door. The Black Crane Pavilion was of middling size, containing three or four rooms at most, all draped in plainness and austerity. This might be his first time to set foot in his lover’s dominion, but Kyuhyun had a very good idea in which room Kijoon might be. The true seat of his soul, after all, was in knowledge and wisdom, not things found in a bedchamber.

 

His conjecture was soon proven to be correct. Kyuhyun found him in the library, sitting in a chair with his back toward the door. A silvery curtain of light streamed in from the open window, illuminating a _wéiqí_ board laid out on a table before him, the black and white stones positioned in a game left unfinished. At the other side of the room, among books and scrolls and gathering shadows, a large map of the empire dominated, filled with illegible notes and peculiar signs.

 

Six more steps bridged their distance. Swiftly but quietly, Kyuhyun leaned down and wrapped his arms around the silent figure. No response was forthcoming for some time, but he could easily imagine the slow smile on Kijoon’s face, soft and indulging, a jewel hidden from eyes of the world. Biting his lips against one of his own, Kyuhyun tucked his chin into the slope where shoulder met throat, content to breathe in all the familiar scents, of dust and books and the sweetness of rice wine.

 

When Kijoon finally stirred, it was to press his lips to the thick fall of his hair and twine their fingers in an intimate knot.

 

“I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon.” His voice, deep and calm, was as pleasant as the summer night.

 

“Obviously,” Kyuhyun murmured, willing his tone to show displeasure but still tangled in the quiet bliss of the moment. “Otherwise, it would mean that you willingly left and neglected me.”

 

A second kiss, this one to his fingertips, marked an apology. “I cannot sleep.”

 

“Despite my company?”

 

“Perhaps precisely because of your company.” A laugh softened his words as his fingers traced the shape of Kyuhyun’s jaw. “I simply wish to savour tonight’s rarity.”

 

“And yet _here_ you are instead of in bed with _me_.”

 

“Think nothing of it,” Kijoon said mildly. “Your presence affects much, but not this. I merely have a few things in my mind.”

 

“Liar.” Kyuhyun untangled himself and walked round the table to claim the empty chair. “You don’t have _a few_ things in your mind. You have thousands, legions, and they are all competing for your attention, all the time.”

 

Kijoon smiled but did not attempt denial. “Play with me,” he said instead, nodding faintly toward the board.

 

“With you?” Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow. “I will be annihilated.”

 

“Not utterly, I promise.”

 

“And how is such a promise to tempt me?” Kyuhyun said dryly. “Only the Prime Minister could claim to hold any chance against you—and even _that_ is only when you have about two hundred other things in mind—along with a headache.”

 

“Actually,” Kijoon hummed, affecting a solemn tone, “my mind happens to work better when I deal with two hundred things or so at once.”

 

This time, Kyuhyun surrendered to laughter, affection bursting in his chest. “Intolerably vain are too small a word to describe you.”

 

“But not untruthful, sadly. So one game?”

 

There were hundreds of tricks still should he truly wish to avoid playing, but Kyuhyun was in too deep contentment to mount a serious opposition. The acquiescence came—with or without a sigh was immaterial. A casual game of _wéiqí_ might be a strange way to pass the night, especially one so wrought with danger, but Kyuhyun could not confess himself to mind. They drank wine and shared coy glances over the board, waiting for the next toll of the hour as the game progressed to its inevitable end.

 

For the moment, life was good.

 

**_End  
_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone wonders, _wéiqí_ is go.


End file.
